Hello my friends:

I am doing some research about which technology is better for tank gauging purposes. I would like to know about your experiences, since there's a lot of technical papers around stating supremacy of FMCW over pulse radars and viceversa.

Here are the facts. FMCW is a technology more efficient from the electronic point of view, and its accuracy is better than pulse radars. Pulse radars are cheaper than FMCW radars for the same type of applications.

API MPMS, ISO and OIML give simmilar parameters regarding tank gauging that can or can not be used to discriminate between products and pick the right one for any application.

In my case, Custody and Transfer application, I have options between 3 or 4 vendors: two with FMCW and 2 with pulse radars. I know FMCW can give me more accuracy than pulse radars, but doing a comparison between them and API, ISO, and OIML, both technologies achieve the same performance (1 mm or better accuracy without installing the instrument). In terms of price, Pulse radars are better, but they have not a good "reputation" during operation in tank farms.

Which technology is more reliable, easier to use, better to install? I'm talking about not only a MTBF criteria. There's also reading precision, frecuency of service, installation procedures, reliability of the components of the tank gauging system.

What about Saab Rosemount? Is it good? Rex Tank Radar is up to the task? What about the new Raptor system?

What is the experience with Honeywell Enraf? We have it here... is reliable, and too bulky, too. What do you think?

Anybody with Varec? Endress & Hausser? The latter uses pulse radars in Custody and Transfer applications. How are they doing?

Probably this post will be misunderstood, but I'm intended to do a technical comparison between vendors. All the information I have comes from them and that's not good. I would like to hear about the people who actually uses the systems. No commercial talking here, just technical issues and characteristics.

I hope to hear from you soon my friends.